G.H.Q., first published in 1920, is something of a hidden gem.It is a long time since I first read this book, and I had forgotten how interesting and useful it is. Written by Sir Frank Fox, originally under the pseudonym ‘G.S.O’, it is an account of what went on at the BEF’s General Headquarters written by a staff officer who served there.

It serves as an excellent introduction to some vital aspects of the BEF’s war. Administration, logistics and staff work are not numbered among the glamourous aspects of warfare, and so, far too often, are overlooked. Tellingly, the one part of this book which may be familiar to readers focuses on the human element. Fox mentions that Haig was rarely seen, and when he did appear, staff officers rushed to a window ‘to catch a glimpse of him’. This annoyed Haig, who crossly annotated his copy of the book, perhaps sensitive to the accusations of remoteness from the rest of GHQ.

Fox wrote the book to defend GHQ against its critics, by explaining what went on there. He takes us through the various branches of GHQ, covering such matters as munitions, salvage, and the medical services, enlivening what might have been a rather dry account with anecdotes.

Lieutenant-General Sir Travers Clarke, the relatively youthful Quartermaster-General from 1917, emerges as one of the unsung heroes of the British army. All of this repays reading, but needs to be supplemented by recent works, such as Craig Gibson on relations with French civilians. Fox wrote as an outsider; an Australian and a journalist, not a professional soldier.

So, he was well placed to see the extent to which GHQ became civilianised, and this is one of his most interesting themes. In his view, the prejudice against New Army officers, which was strong in 1916, had largely vanished by the end of the war. These citizen-soldiers had not only brought their civilian skills into the army, but had made GHQ more interesting, with the Mess a far less stuffy place: ‘I was struck by the general good temper with which the Trade Union of Officers ultimately took its “dilutees”’ (p.133).

Both as a memoir and a history, G.H.Q. is valuable, and it is very good to see this new edition in print. It has a foreword from the author’s great grandson, Dr Charles Goodson-Wickes, a former MP, and, as a bonus, the ‘Game Book’, a statistical annex compiled by Travers Clarke for King George V.

Excerpt from THE SOMME A CONTEST OF ENDURANCE, Review Essay by Jack Spence:

So much for context. Two of the authors under review — Frank Fox and Taylor Downing — provide specialised treatment of two subjects: the work of General Headquarters (GHQ) based at Montreuil-sur-Mer and the impact of shell shock on those who suffered and those in authority who had to deal with it.

Frank Fox, whose G.H.Q. (Montreuil-sur-Mer) was ﬁrst published in 1920, was severely wounded on the Somme, but after a year’s convalescence returned to France as a staff officer at Montreuil.
The work was reissued in 2015 by Charles Goodson-Wickes, the author’s great-grandson and literary executor.
The reader is offered a meticulous and well—researched account of the vast bureaucratic structure and process required by Britain to prosecute the war successfully. This was, in many ways, a miracle of improvisation that governments of the past had never had to deal with on this scale, given the logistic requirements of modern war. In effect, the war, at one level of analysis, was a bureaucratic contest between states, all of which were seeking to mobilise and destroy the enemy’s ability to wage war most effectively. The author considers this in superb detail: for example, how munitions were supplied and despatched to the front; how medical facilities were organised; how horses and mules were cared for; and how a rudimentary educational system was devised. Fox is also illuminating on Secretary of State for War Horatio Kitchener’s New Army, providing an altogether fascinating account of the supporting role of the Dominions and the US. This argument is supported by a wealth of statistical information, photographs and a helpful chart detailing the various directorates and inspectorates controlled by the quartermaster general. Finally, there is a delicately phrased account of GHQ at play: ’monkish in its denial of some pleasures, rigid in discipline, exacting in work, but neither austere nor anxious’.7

This is an important text full of insight into how the British organised themselves for war.

Sir Frank Fox is a largely forgotten figure whose life reads like a character from a John Buchan novel. A “strikingly handsome” Australian émigré to England, who became a doyen of Fleet Street, as a war correspondent he witnessed German atrocities against Belgian civilians in 1914 which so appalled him that he signed up – lying about his age – at 41.

Grievously injured at the Somme, he worked for a time at MI7, focused on bringing the USA into the war, before charming his way to a staff officer post at General Headquarters (GHQ) in Montreuil-sur-Mer, northern France.

GHQ was the ‘brain’ of the huge British expeditionary effort in France and Belgium, responsible for strategy, coordination with Allied governments, and administration.

This contemporary account, re-published to coincide with the centenary of GHQ’s move to Montreuil under Haig, is a fascinating reminder of the unsung but vital role of logistics in military success or failure – “for every rifleman in the trenches there are at least three people working to keep him supplied with food, clothing, ammunition, and on communication.”

The red-tabbed staff officers of GHQ, whose prior experience at best stretched to small colonial wars, suddenly found themselves as the “Board of Directors” of a vast wartime supermarket, transport (in charge of half a million horses, and a spider’s web of railways), laundry and health service which had to match the BEF’s tenfold growth 1914-16.

Fox compares the challenge to peacetime civilian administration: “Tell the manager of the London to Brighton line that next week he must carry 15 times the normal traffic for a number of days, and that it is extremely important that people observing his termini and his lines should not notice anything unusual”. During intense fighting, 1,934 tons of materiel had to be supplied to each mile of front, per day, to feed the war machine.

GHQ personnel led lives of monkish hard work, sealed tight inside Montreuil’s medieval ramparts against the dangers of espionage. Fox, who had experienced both, downplays the dangers of trench life, “not nearly so dangerous as one might judge from the lurid accounts of imaginative writers”, as set against the “fantastic” but punishing work at GHQ.

Work might continue through consecutive days and nights, and some men, tortured by their sometimes momentous effect on human lives, became unfit to work there. Hardly the image of cosy “chateau generalship” encouraged by some historians and “Blackadder”.

There are moments of high tension at GHQ when the Ludendorff Offensive of March 1918 smashed through British lines, threatening the Channel Ports, the conquest of which the author estimated could have extended the war by another ten years. GHQ worked then with the French on defensive preparations to destroy Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk and flood the Pas de Calais from the sea, which would have made “this great province a desert for two generations”.

From March 1918 until the Armistice, GHQ was subsumed under the overall command of the French Généralissime Marshal Foch, but continued to play its crucial role in the complex strategic and logistic planning for the ultimate defeat of the German Army.

This charming account, sometimes disjointed and written in the manner and language of its time, which will not please all modern readers, gives rare perspective on GHQ’s wartime operations. Its example 1916-18 (the author also reminds us that Montreuil was a jump off point for the Roman invasion of Britain, and “lay almost in sight” of Agincourt and Crecy) demonstrates the need for a flexible, bilateral approach to meet changing circumstances – at least in military and security affairs – rather than the over-idealistic “ever closer union” required by some of Britain’s current allies.

Allan Mallinson from The Times reviewed new books on the wider aspects of the Great War. We were delighted that G.H.Q. was selected as one of the 6 books. The scan of the article is below and the link to the website here (summary only available to non-subscribers of The Times):Six of the best First World War reads

The hardback limited edition of G.H.Q. is now sold out but the paperback is currently being printed. Please sign up to the waiting list to be notified when it is available to buy:Sign up to be notified

I am delighted to be back in Montreuil-sur-Mer, a town of great beauty and distinction which holds many happy memories for me from numerous visits over the years.

I am grateful to MCM for the invitation- in particular to Prof. Bruno Béthouart and to Siobhan Stevens who are the driving forces behind the Committee which ensures that the town’s relatively recent history is properly recognised. I also acknowledge my thanks to Terence Hughes who has provided some photographs on the desk.

This splendid initiative will encourage not only historians, but tourists in general, to visit Montreuil and to enjoy everything it has to offer.

Tonight is a very special occasion as it marks the beginning of a series of events leading up to the commemoration of the setting up of Field Marshal Lord Haig’s General Head Quarters here a century ago in 1916. It is a very important Anglo – French way of celebrating our shared endeavours in times of war- when our joint liberties have been under threat from malign forces.

GHQ Sir Frank Fox Book launch

This particular project – the republication of “GHQ” by “GSO” has a deep personal significance for me as “GSO” was the pseudonym for Sir Frank Fox, my Great Grandfather. (You may know that it was forbidden under Military Regulations for Serving Officers to write under their own name).

Not many people have the privilege of knowing their Great Grandfather – but I did and, as I was 15 years old when he died, I knew him well. I will tell you more of him later and hope that you will see why he was my childhood hero.

But let us go to the start of this project. It was in 2014 that my Parliamentary colleague, fellow Army Officer and friend Lord Astor, wrote to me, as he somehow knew that Frank Fox was my Great Grandfather. (I hadn’t told him, so I lay the blame on the ubiquitous Internet!). He in turn is the Grandson of Lord Haig. Sadly he cannot be here this afternoon as he is hosting a Dinner in London.

Lord Astor had been in discussions in France and in England with Mayor Béthouart, as he then was, to explore various ways of commemorating the centenary of the setting up of the GHQ here. (It is still my hope that the statue of Haig which overlooks the square will be restored by next year.) This would be most appropriate as well as admire the fine statue of Marshal Foch in London.

The support of MCM has made the republication of this unique contemporary account, and tonight’s relaunch possible. I am most grateful to them.

It is they who have had the major task of translating the whole book into French.
I would also like to record the marvellous help of my son Edward who has been responsible for the design and layout of the English version, which also includes statistics produced for King George V never before generally published. (By the way the Beaumont name under which it is published is a reference to the small amount of French blood in my veins!)
His work under difficult conditions has been invaluable. It has also become a labour of love for him as he is proud of his ancestor, and I am delighted that he has been able to come here from South America to be with us today.

Frank Fox was a War Correspondent for the Morning Post, a distinguished British newspaper which is now part of the Daily Telegraph.

His first experience of battle was in the Balkan Wars in Bulgaria from which he was summoned to go to Belgium in the light of an anticipated German attack.

He was attached to the Belgian Army in time for King Albert’s rejection of the German Ultimatum. From August until December of 1914 he criss-crossed the country – often by bicycle to avoid attention- where he witnessed atrocities visited upon the civilian population, the use of human shields, and the sacking of the cultural centre of Louvain and of numerous churches and historic buildings.

So horrified was he by all of this, that he longed to become a combatant. Thus he returned to England and was commissioned into the British Army. He was 41 years old at the time-beyond the limit for military service- and I suspect that he lied about his age!

He was sent to the Somme where he was twice wounded. On the second occasion his diary recorded “I was blown up in front of Le Sars. I refused to die on the battlefield. The gallant stretcher bearers got me in. I spent the next year in hospital. ”

Although he worked for MI7 (Propaganda) during his convalescence – mainly in attempts to get the USA to enter the War- he fretted to get back to France.

Owing to various political and personal contacts he succeeded in this and arrived here in GHQ, Montreuil as a Staff Officer in the Quartermaster General’s Department.

He must have cut a curious figure on crutches having lost most of his right foot, and with his withered left arm in a sling. His profound deafness cannot have added to the general impression that he gave!

Some Staff Officers were criticised for being “desk warriors” far from the Front. At least he was immune from such remarks- and it seems from his account that many Officers were “crocked” having “taken a knock”. Fox was glad to undergo regular physiotherapy for his wounds at the hospital.

But enough of him for the moment. What did he record of life here in GHQ from 1916- 1919 when Montreuil was at the hub of the most extraordinary planning and logistical exercise leading up to the final defeat of the German Army?

I hope that – in French or in English, both versions of which are available here this afternoon- you will read for yourselves.

However, I will pick out a few points.

Montreuil was selected for its all important role owing to its accessibility both to the Trenches and to Paris and London. GHQ was moved there from St Omer in March 1916. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) with its Commander in Chief could thus communicate with ease with the Secretary of State for War and the Government in London.

Outside the church before the procession

Fox describes its attributes as “central remoteness”. There was a military population of about 5,000 including 300 Regular Officers supplemented by Temporary Officers- referred to irreverently by some as “Temporary Gentlemen”!

He says that it was ” a fantastic life- serious, monkish (in the almost total absence of the female sex), sober, disciplined and exciting.” Typical hours worked were 0900-2230 hrs with no distinction for weekends. Leave was given every 6 months.

It is curious that he uses this last adjective “exciting” as elsewhere he describes life in the trenches as “tedious – with rare moments of high excitement and horror”

He says that this depiction is in contrast to “lurid accounts of imaginative writers”! He also has a swipe at Members of the British Parliament who treated visits as “Cook’s Tours” -Cook’s being a well-known tourist agency.
General Travers Clarke, the QMG under whom Fox served, was insistent that Staff work should be seamless between the office and the trenches.

Five British Divisions were deployed – each at 20,000 men larger than the standard. Perhaps the most significant statistic is that for every Rifleman or Gunner in the Front Line, there were 3 soldiers in support.

I say “British” but let us not forget that this included men from throughout the British Empire – let alone relatively unsung soldiers from France (of course), Belgium, USA and Portugal -an early and truly international HQ.

The CinC lived in a nearby chateau and the École Militaire housed the HQ. There was a pleasant walk along the Ramparts to the Officers’ Club.

There is reference to Marshal Ney’s house near Plas Verte (used for Napoleon’s planned invasion of England) and to the Hotel de France which served as an alternative to the Officers’ Mess. Fox was billeted with a Monsieur Laurent and I wonder if any of his relations still live here. Can anyone help? His wife was a French teacher – and I fear that I would have benefitted from her tuition!

So what were the headline functions of GHQ?

The link between the Army in the field and the political leaders of the Allies; strategy in the British sector; supply of all clothing, food, munitions and pay; transport (by road by horse and by motor; by rail and water); agriculture and food supply; medical, veterinary and spiritual support etc. – all vital for maintaining morale (although it was noted that GHQ officers were poor church goers in contrast to the very religious Haig!)

There was occasional recreation in the Theatre, and in cricket, football, swimming and riding- which Fox particularly enjoyed. Indeed he took a special interest in the welfare of the many horses deployed at the Front.

Whilst British soldiers were described as “lions in the trenches” he maintains that they behaved as “lambs in the villages”. The relationship between the Army and the civilian population was a crucial one, being the unusual state of a country being occupied by friendly forces. This required civilian assent and cooperation, which was complicated by the movement of refugees.

New insights are given into the importance of a Labour Corps of up to a third of a million men.

Elderly and disabled French civilians did sterling service. More demanding physical work was carried out by Labour companies made up of Indian, Caribbean, Chinese, Fijian, Native South African and Egyptian men – supplemented by German Prisoners of War.

I will not go into the descriptions of the waxing and waning of the campaign all of which you can read.

Haig’s reputation has become a controversial subject. However in this contemporary record he has been given fulsome praise for his faithfulness to friends despite political or Press criticism; his brilliant insight for Appointments; his religious convictions; his great trust in others; and his enlightened promotion of education of soldiers to prepare them as better citizens for the return to civvy street after such extraordinary and exceptional experiences in battle.

The book ends with Marshal Foch’s appointment as Commander in Chief of the Allied Armies- a move which was wholeheartedly supported by the British and American Generals- Haig and Pershing.

That highly appropriate international recognition of French suffering and courage leading up to the glorious end to the War is also a good point on which to conclude this talk.